Our faith in you will never waver, America!
According to official data released by Instagram, the most used emoji on the platform in 2016 was the heart. Clearly a symbol of love, the heart tops a list of other positive emojis. From heart eyes to two other versions of the heart symbol, from party poppers to the emoji face blowing kisses, we are officially a nation of positive-thinking emoji users. Congratulations to us all!
Are the positive symbols an indication of our collective need for more affection, acceptance and unity or do they correlate to an abundance of existing displays of affection and love between us Americans? What should the takeaway be here? That we should be giving out more love or that we're doing fine in that department? That is anyone's guess, but the overall message is obvious: love rules, people.
Below, check out the full top 10 list:
And so, although we've been mourning the loss of face-to-face communication while secretly protesting a seeming national trend that favors images over words, we do indeed appreciate this study and surprisingly feel a tad bit better about slowly abandoning written-out texts and opting for emoji-driven conversations (but let's keep this symbol-heavy language confined to cell phone messages, please).
Here's to 2017, America! A year we hope will be filled with both the written word and loads of heart-shaped emojis... In addition to an eggplant or two.